Valentines for the Boys

I'm a big present person, I know that makes me sound bad, but my love language is gifts! I learned that from this book, which seems corny but is totally worth the short entertaining read.

I guarantee you will finish it with a new understanding of yourself and your significant other.

Anywho, in the spirit of not over gifting, which may have occurred over Christmas, I set a $20 limit for our Valentines this year. Something my husband is a big fan of (since he's currently a non working full time student).

I came up with a few ideas I have either gifted my husband or thought about gifting him for this Valentine's Day. Just something small and thoughtful.


J Crew Candy Heart Boxers



Art of Shaving Kit, I gifted this as a stocking stuffer this year, the sample size as I wasn't sure how he would like it, but it got rave reviews! He loves it and it smells great. 3 cheers for a little fancy man-hygiene. From Sephora.



Great for high ball drinks, whiskey, whatever your guy likes. From MOMA.



Something from the heart, a picture of our home state with an emphasis on Richmond (where we lived for 4 years before coming to Nashville). From this lovely Etsy seller.

Hope that gives you some ideas for your Valentine. As for me, I'll take hydrangeas, good truffles, and a sweet card. I'm a Valentine cliche!

The Twist

I don't know about you but making bread, or a variety of bread, at home seems astoundingly difficult to me. I'm dipping a toe into the bread making pool with these pretzels that were very easy. I made these pretzels for game day on Sunday and they turned out really well. They do take a bit of time as the dough has to rise an hour but on the whole they're pretty straight forward and delicious!

Serve with a hot cheese dip and good mustard (We used the french whole grain dijon from Trader Joe's) YUM!

Alton Brown Recipe: Homemade Soft Pretzels

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel salt

Directions

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

New Year

In the New Year spirit, H and I were talking about the coming year. After spending a week with our super healthy/fit siblings over Christmas (and realizing that we are nothing like that) I'd like to make an extra effort to eat more cleanly and keep junk/extra alcohol out of the house. Less dessert, less junk food, and no drinking Sunday-Thursday should help immensely. We were also members of a local Nashville CSA (Delvin Farms) this summer/fall and absolutely loved it! Every other Saturday at the farmer's market we picked up a large box of fruit/veggies/herbs which really encouraged me to cook with more vegetables and get creative. I can't wait until spring rolls around to make saturday pick ups again.

I'm also in the mood to simplify our life. If I start thinking about all the possibilities that the future holds I get the shakes a bit. I think paring down will give me a stronger inner peace that I need, to combat my major type-A attributes. I've always had anti-hoarding tendencies, "honey can we go through your closet again to see if there's anything to throw out?" but I'd also like to focus on saving more, needing less, and appreciating what we have. We'd like to take a vacation to France sometime this spring and also start saving for a house, ahh goals! how I need you. So owning less, appreciating more, and keeping our goals in sight will certainly help!

Cheers to 2012! (my inner geek is so pleased with this even numbered year ;-)

Elvis Etc.

Happy New Year to everyone! I can't believe it's 2012 and only a few short months until the Mr. graduates from business school. We had a pretty low key evening at home watching our alma mater, UVA, playing Auburn in the Chik-Fil-A bowl. I also made delicious homemade soft pretzels--so easy and in a totally different league than those cardboard pretzels you find at any stadium.

On Friday we headed to Memphis for a little Graceland experience (our Groupons were about to expire!) and had a great time. On Thursday night we ate at Restaurant Iris in Memphis, hands down best meal we've had in the state of Tennessee. I made a reservation weeks ago and thankfully we found an opening. The service was excellent and the food amazing. I tried the shrimp and grits and H had the short ribs. For any foodie or special date night this place is a must try!



Graceland the next day was definitely an experience. Though the house was much smaller than expected it was interesting the walk through the estate of Elvis Presley. We also caught a glimpse of his car collection and many, many stage outfits. Who knew the man invented jumpsuits? I'd recommend a visit just to see this icon's relics and learn more about his life.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm sure most of you know about Pinterest--the addicting site with images and links to everything from Etsy finds to tailgate recipes. I found a cookie recipe months ago and decided to make it last night, in honor of H's last exam today. And can we talk about how there are only 6 months of MBA classes left? This last year and 1/2 has completely flown by with the wedding, meeting new friends, H getting buried in school work, and living the college lifestyle again (at least vicariously for me). Anyway so I made these cookies last night that blew.my.mind. They are the best version of chocolate chip cookies I've ever had in my life. The cookies are crispy on the edges and gooey on the inside with a salty/toffeeish flavor that is amazing. Definitely worth a shot and another great thing about the recipe is that you melt and brown the butter, no taking it out of the fridge 4 hours before you want to bake, perfection!




Here it goes:

Published May 1, 2009. From Cook's Illustrated.


Why this recipe works: Our perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe had to produce a cookie that would be moist and chewy on the inside and crisp at the edges, with deep notes of toffee and butterscotch to balance its sweetness. Melting the butter gave us the chewiness we were looking for. Cutting back on the flour and eliminating an egg white also improved texture and brought the brown sugar flavor to the fore. To give our chocolate chip cookie recipe the crisp edges and toffee flavor we wanted, we let the sugar dissolve in the batter for 10 minutes, then baked the cookies at a high temperature so the edges darkened while the centers stayed soft. (less)

Our perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe had to produce a cookie that would be moist and chewy on the inside and crisp at the edges, with deep notes of toffee and butterscotch to balance its sweetness. Melting the butter gave us the chewiness ...(more)

Makes 16 cookies
Avoid using a nonstick skillet to brown the butter; the dark color of the nonstick coating makes it difficult to gauge when the butter is browned. Use fresh, moist brown sugar instead of hardened brown sugar, which will make the cookies dry. This recipe works with light brown sugar, but the cookies will be less full-flavored. For our winning brand of chocolate chips, see related tasting.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (8 3/4 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 14tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
3/4 cups packed dark brown sugar (5 1/4 ounces) (see note)
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (see note)
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

Instructions
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large (18- by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.

3. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using), giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

4. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons (or use #24 cookie scoop). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet. (Smaller baking sheets can be used, but will require 3 batches.)

5. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.


Happy Baking!

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 by lmr featuring cashmere gloves

J Crew long sleeve pajamas, $98J Crew j crew handbag, $238
David Yurman facets jewelry, $425
J Crew cashmere glove, $98
J Crew star scarve, $40
Outdoor Ornament Pine Wreath | Pottery Barn, $79
Dualit 5-Speed Chrome Hand Mixer, $80
Verso Clip Light - Lilac: Lightwedge: Home | chapters.indigo.ca, $17
Amazon.com: Christmas: Michael Bublé: Music, $12

So I thought I would venture back out into the blogosphere with a little posting about my Christmas wish list. H and I are exchanging gifts a little early as we're headed off to Utah for Christmas to be with his family.

Other Christmas traditions that we started last year include, driving around the beautiful Nashville neighborhoods in all their Christmas glory with hot cocoa and Christmas music, watching Christmas movies of course, decorating our Douglas Fir, and attending the Holiday festival in Franklin. I also want to visit the Grand Ole Opry to see their amazing decor and maybe take a walk through the ice sculptures.

Married, Honeymooned, and ready for Christmas!

We did it! Our wedding in Virginia was over 2 weeks ago, I can't believe it. Everything went perfectly, our venue was amazing and took care of all the extra details. The ceremony was beautiful, Bryan's uncle did such a good job! Our DJ was fabulous and we happily danced the night away. I'll start recapping with pictures and vendor reviews for any other ladies getting married soon.

I will only say this, Etsy was my savior!!!

Hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! We were on the tail end of our honeymoon in Napa/San Francisco so we decided to have a Chinese dinner in Chinatown, it.was.delicious.



For shoppers still looking to pick up a few gifts or holiday accessories, Pottery Barn is having an amazing one day monogram and free shipping sale on tons of great products. I scooped up a few things for our friends, family, and apartment!

After Party

This is my post wedding/after party dress! I can't wait to wear it--though it's going to be pretty cold out, maybe with black tights?

Skincare Love

I know it's been forever! since this bride to be has checked in for a recap of well...anything. I'm going to try to start back up with wedding details since the big day is less than two weeks away!

First off, skin care, something I used to know nothing about. When we were first planning the wedding I had heard it was a good idea to go all bootcamp on your skin, unless you already had a magical regime--I definitely did not. I started slow using these guys every night to take off the day:



Then I decided to spring for something I had been pining for:



The Clairsonic! is amazing. I am really a believer in this product and after using it daily for about 2 weeks I could tell my skin was softer and nicer with more of a glow. I didn't have any weird reactions to it, no bumps or irritation, just taking off the older skin cells and exfoliating like it was going out of style. This was my major skincare routine change and it worked amazingly well.

So I thought about doing facials for a more intense kind of skincare prep right before the big day. Instead I decided to try out the Boscia Black Masque from Sephora and now I give myself facials at home twice a week. There is a reason everyone is raving about this masque, it really cleans your skin and purifies amazingly well. I think this is still sold out at the Sephora website, I nabbed mine from the local Nashville mall.



There you go--my skincare regime revealed! What are some of your favorite products?

You're invited...

So we have hit the 3 month mark until the wedding, can you believe it? The summer is flying by at lightening speed, even working at home--which I did not anticipate. My days go so quickly that I hardly have time to put on a real outfit, not involving pjs, and throw some makeup on. Bring on the wedding panic, we have no invites! I have been looking at invites for months and months, secretly before B and I were even engaged!

I hate everything, I don't know what it is--I feel like the wedding invite sets your expectation about the event, which I know is ludicrous, however after much website surfing and serious lamenting I found the ones.

Enter Etsy. I usually think of Etsy as a clusterbomb of stuff that usually scares me away(they need to organize that site!). BUT I loved the idea of supporting someone's local business and actually talking with the person who would make our invitations. I also thought prices might be more reasonable on the site, check!, yes they were (depending on what you're looking at of course). I was never under the delusion that I would make my invites, props to the people who have craft skills, this girl knows her limits. I just wanted something beautiful, simple, and elegant.

I found my dream invite and Amy at Amy Olsaver Designs, http://www.etsy.com/shop/amyolsaver, has been wonderful to work with. I saw her monogrammed styles and fell in love. She also customized our colors exactly and was open to any kind of changes that I wanted to make. I would recommend her to anyone looking to incorporate monograms into their wedding, either labels, favor boxes, or invitations.

Back from Hiatus

Between vacationing to South Carolina, packing up our old apartment, and moving 10 hours from Richmond to Nashville it's been a crazy past month! But I'm back, blogging from my home office, and so happy to be a Nashvillian.

I would include some new pictures of our apartment, however, it's still a bit of a wreck. There is a lot of organizing, decorating, and buying new household items to come! Hopefully I'll be able to spotlight some of the new projects along with our Nashville, and other Tennessee, adventures.

Here are a few things I'd like to tackle in the weeks to come:


Organizing my closet! I love the idea of framing pictures of your style icons for instant inspiration.


There is now sand on my growing list of house must haves--I love this idea for makeup brushes.





I really want to do a gallery wall above our big couch in the living room--I have collected tons of black frames so I just need to work up the courage to start!

Packing for a Mystery Bachelorette

My bridesmaid ladies, and other friends, are planning a surprise Bachelorette party for me this weekend! I don't really know where we are going, or what we're doing, and everything going on right now I'm so thankful to not be involved in the planning at all (totally going against my majorly type-A tendencies)--major dove love going out to everyone!! I have a few surprises for my friends as well--I just can't wait to see everyone and have an amazing, relaxed time wherever we are.

I've also decided I need to start planning some outfits for the upcoming weekend. I'm pretty sure it's going to be HOT wherever we are so sundresses are my new best friend. After another weekend in my hometown, with a jcrew warehouse sale--yay!, I picked up a few more essential items. Here's what I'm thinking:


a Metallic Beach cardigan, for cooler summer nights


I have been dying over these shoes since they came out and luckily snagged a pair over the weekend-


Love this simple, breezy dress


This jersey ruffle dress is so comfortable


A big straw hat will definitely be necessary to save me from the heat

Friday cannot come soon enough!

Hey Mambo, Italian Dinner

I just bought the Everyday Food cookbook and I think I have been wrong all along...maybe Martha and I will be friends!

I tried the 3 Tomato Spagetti, which I was unsure of as there are only a few ingredients and it was a breeze to make. It turned out really well with lots of flavor! A perfect light summer meal--

Ingredients:
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound spaghetti
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato oil (from oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes)
4 cloves garlic, minced
¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 can (28 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes with juice
½ cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 pound cherry tomatoes, halved

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti according to package directions.

Heat 2 tablespoons tomato oil in a large saucepan over mediumheat. Add garlic and crushed red pepper; cook until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add canned tomatoes with juice and sun-dried tomatoes. Simmer gently over medium, stirring occasionally and breaking up canned tomatoes until thick, 15 minutes. Add cherry tomatoes; simmer until soft, 10 minutes.

Drain spaghetti, reserving 1 cup pasta water; return pasta to pot. Add tomato mixture; season with salt and pepper. Toss, adding pasta water as desired (I did not end up adding any). Serve immediately (and cover gratuitously with parmesan cheese!).


I also really like this cookbook as it's broken up by season--easy peasy.

Back on the Wedding Train

Ok--we've decided to go ahead with the wedding. Hopefully that will be the only hiccup in the rest of our planning process, we've come so far I cannot imagine starting over entirely. Thank you for all of the supportive words and love from the blogworld. Last week was tough, like can't sleep tough, but now the sun is out and I'm getting excited about our wedding all over again.

To help get back in the mood, enjoy some wedding teasers:


I found these shoes at a J Crew warehouse sale and they are beautiful and incredibly comfortable--I'm not a big shoe person so as long as I'm tall and somewhat comfy, that is all that matters.



Love these earrings.


A cardigan over the dress, why didn't I think of this?--one more reason I'm so happy to be November bride.

Wedding Dilemma

We just ran into a major issue with our venue. We are getting married at a small Inn in Virginia. The plan was for all of us to stay there for the weekend, get married on their grounds Saturday afternoon, and hold our reception at this same location. A few days ago we found out that the Inn had booked all of the rooms for another wedding, the Friday night before our wedding. There is absolutely no availability and not only did they not give us preference to book these rooms, we booked our wedding first, they did not alert us to this change at all. We found out after relatives called warning us that the Inn was not taking their reservations as it was booked.

I have been a mess for the last few days. We were given a rate for Friday night and told that we would certainly be able to book rooms. Now that we are still 6 months out we have the option to basically pull out of the wedding or continue working with our venue to make the best of things. They did admit fault and are trying to make this oversight up to us. What I need to know is, is this worth it? Should we just cut our losses and do something completely different? Readers who have gone through the wedding process, were you glad that you did? Is the stress and planning worth the end result? Would you have done it differently if you could go back?

I need your guidance to help wrap my mind around this new development.

What the Ladies Will Wear

I just realized I never revealed what my lovely bridesmaids will be wearing for the wedding. I decided to go with the J Crew option, mostly because it's very accessible and I don't believe in fittings for bridesmaid dresses--why should they be doing the same amount of work that I'm doing to get into their dresses? We also scored in ordering some dresses on sale, the barely peach color was going out of style--I frantically realized one day when the styles were selling out online.

I let the girls pick from a range of colors and styles but in the same fabric, silk taffeta, to keep everything somewhat coordinated. I am in love with our wedding colors and was inspired by the following mood boards.




Here they are!






There is also a blakely dress in champagne but I couldn't find a picture online.

I opted for a strappy gold sandal, like these J Crew styles:

Easiest Frozen Key Lime Pie Recipe

4 ingredients:
One container of light cool whip
One can of sweetened condensed milk, fat free
1/2 cup of Key Lime Juice (you can either squeeze your own or buy the bottled stuff)
One graham cracker crust

Thaw cool whip until soft and add in milk and key lime juice, mix until incorporated, pour into crust, freeze for 4 hours or until firm.

This dessert is super light and still tastes exactly like regular key lime pie. I'm off to the store to pick up my ingredients now!

Favorite Spring Things

I've seriously been lacking in posts lately, sorry! We're dealing with the impending move, less than 2 months!, trying to clean out our apartment via craigslist, and weekends full of graduation activities for the little brother and sister.

To try to get back into the good graces of my wonderful readers, I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite things this spring.


My sister gave me a super easy and low calorie key lime pie recipe (see post to follow!)
I am officially obsessed with Jack Rogers, especially after learning that Jackie O made them popular in the 60s, I cannot stop wearing them. My most recent love is the cork and gold version, they go with everything!


I also bought my first pair of RayBans--I love the retro chic feel



Recently, all I want to drink is white wine, which I used to loathe--Particulaly sauvignon blancs and viogniers, I love the crisp fruit taste and semi dry finish (also for anyone who has been watching the Hills this season, have you noticed how Brody is always drinking white wine whenever they are out? It's so bizarre and girly, haha--I hope someone calls him out on it)


I cannot get enough of this everyday cardigan by J Crew, I shamefully own it in 3! colors, but its super comfortable and pulls any outfit together...

Honeymoon Ideas

We are in desperate need of honeymoon ideas! With Bryan starting his MBA program in August and the wedding in November we'll be aiming for either a Thanksgiving week honeymoon or sometime in late December. It's a weird time of year weather wise so I'm pretty sure we want to do something beachy and relaxing. Right now the contenders are Key West and St. Lucia, but I need your help with more ideas! Please let me know if you have any amazing honeymoon recommendations or can offer a review of Key West or St. Lucia.



Thank you thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

Engagement Photo Shoot

Our spring engagement shoot on the UVA campus--








All pictures by Beck and Call Photography!